City defends R230m Lilian Ngoyi Street rehab as reopening is pushed to late October

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has strongly defended the repeatedly delayed rehabilitation of Lilian Ngoyi Street in the city centre, while admitting that the City’s cash-flow problems contributed to it missing its August completion deadline.

Lilian Ngoyi Street tore open on 19 July 2023 when a massive underground methane gas explosion ripped through a 450m stretch of the road, killing one person, injuring dozens, and causing extensive structural damage to essential underground service tunnels. Rebuilding the key CBD transport artery has faced significant delays, with the city terminating its original contractor due to poor performance before handing over the project to a new team.

At an on-site media briefing on Wednesday, 9 September, Morero said cash-flow difficulties in June and July had delayed the project by two months. The City has now committed to reopening the road by 31 October.

City manager Floyd Brink also defended the cost of the project, saying its complexity made comparisons with conventional road construction misleading.

Speaking separately to Daily Maverick during the site visit, Brink pointed to the extensive network of services beneath the road.

“There is a whole life underneath this street with water and power and cable connections,” he said.

Engineers had to excavate up to 5m deep – compared to 1m for standard roadwork – to access the massive underground service tunnel, relocate conflicting lines, and fix localised sinkholes caused by structural collapses and erosion. Brink said he would welcome an independent investigation into the project’s costs and was confident the expenditure was justified by the scale and complexity of the work.

Journalists were taken into the service tunnel, which houses essential municipal infrastructure – including water pipelines, sewer reticulation, gas lines and electrical and telecommunications cables.

The City said approximately R40-million had been invested in rebuilding the tunnel and restoring essential services. The refurbished tunnel includes gas and smoke detectors, infrared motion detectors and a real-time monitoring system designed to alert City Power to dangerous gas accumulation or fire.

In its media release on Wednesday, the City said: “The total budget for the project stands at R192-million, supported by a 20% contingency fund set aside for unforeseen technical challenges.”

In written responses to Daily Maverick last week, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) said: “The total budget allocated towards this project is R230-million”, inclusive of Korone Engineering’s R192-million contract and an allowable 20% variation.

JRA also confirmed that R185-million had already been spent on construction – R19-million on the original contractor, Step Up Engineering, before its contract was terminated in August 2024, and R166-million on Korone.

Professional fees are charged under a separate contract.

The City also used Wednesday’s briefing to defend the project's cost per kilometre, saying the deep excavations, utility tunnel construction and sewer upgrades meant it could not be treated as an ordinary road project.

Unscripted diversion

There was an unscripted diversion during Wednesday's media tour.

A motorist stopped his car illegally in the road, left the engine running and dashed into a betting shop. Metro police officers climbed into the unattended vehicle and drove it away to be impounded.

Moments later, the enraged driver sprinted out and chased his car down the street. When officers pulled over, they informed him he would have to pay a R4,000 fine to reclaim it.

The City says the road will reopen by 31 October, with JRA CEO Zweli Nyathi saying “every effort” was being made to avoid further delays beyond October. DM